Rick Hill is the Valero Alamo Bowl’s VP of Marketing and Communications. Prior to the bowl, Rick spent 6 years working for the Spurs, one season with Missions Baseball and two fruitless months trying to sell season tickets for the S.A. Riders.

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Since most of the teams in our mix will still play each other, it will be interesting to see if anyone separates from the pack. The most popular pick from college football media for our match-up this week is Missouri vs. Stanford.

Over the last 10 years, the Pac-10 #2 selection vs. a Big 12 #3 selection has delivered teams that average 9.5 wins and a #15 ranking, which we are trending toward again.

My guess is that Oregon and Auburn will not be playing each other in Phoenix on January 10 and the Valero Alamo Bowl will select its first team 10 win team since 1998 when a 10-2 Kansas State lost 37-34 to Drew Brees and Purdue.

Of course, I also predicted Missouri and Michigan State would take Nebraska and Iowa to the final whistle last weekend. I may have been alone in that thinking, but the list of surprising outcomes this college football season grows longer each week.

To wit:

• Baylor now has more wins than the combined totals of the Texas Longhorns and Dallas Cowboys.

• Texas A&M played their best game after they bench the Big 12 Preseason Offensive Player of Year.

• Three of the Top 5 teams in this week’s BCS (TCU, Boise State and Utah) are from non-BCS conferences.

• California is 4-0 at home with a 39 point average margin of victory and 0-4 on the road losing the games by an average of three touchdowns for an incredible 60 point differential.

This Saturday, Valero Alamo Bowl representatives will learn about the teams in our mix by attending the following games:

Arizona @ Stanford

Baylor @ Oklahoma State

Oklahoma @ Texas A&M

The long Halloween weekend has me wishing for two things: 1) a political candidate whose platform includes a pledge to anchor the holiday on the last Saturday of October and 2) this week would fast forward to Saturday so I’d get to watch another slate of great games before taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep daylight savings time will bring.

Rick Hill

2 Responses

Good catch Cotton. I corrected the score to show it as 37-34 as Brees threw the game winning touchdown in the final minute. I’m blaming all mistakes on a Sunday evening Halloween and the fact it’s pitch dark when I come to work right now.